Happily Ever After

A 10K Special

When Tedros was four, he knew what love was.

It was obvious; it was the warm feeling you got when Mother tucked you into a warm bed and pulled the covers to your ears, showering your face with kisses. It was the warm feeling you got when Father told you he was proud of you. It was the warm feeling you got when Uncle Lancelot sneakily agreed to sneak in some extra swordplay lessons, even though you had promised Mum that you'd star studying literacy with your tutor after lunch.

It was obvious.

Tedros was ten, and he didn't know what love was.

He'd thought it was the emotion in Mother and Father's eyes in all the tapestries and painting depicted around the castle. In their anniversary speeches and gifts, in the sloppy kiss they always gave at the end of the ball, when he was meant to be in bed but still sneaking around.

But if his mother had loved him, if Uncle Lancelot had loved him, why had they left? Where had they gone?

And why was father so gloomy and dejected? Did love not exist without Mother?

Tedros is fourteen, and he knows that love is real; but that it hurts, it burns. He doesn't know if he ever wants anything to do with it, if these are the after effects, the reality.

He's seen the horrific effects on his father. On the burnt up, alcoholic and cowardly wreck his father has shattered himself into, allowing his kingdom to slowly descend into ramshackle by handing the reins to other lords, greedy, power-hungry ones.

He promises himself that he will never descend into this mania, and if that means never marrying, never falling in love, so be it.

Tedros is fifteen. Despite the promise he made with himself when he was fourteen, he held in his heart hope that some girl at the School for Good would make him change his mind, fall in love, change his opinion of the hideousness and the pain of the emotion.

No girl does.

They might all have different coloured skin, hair, beauty regimes and hail from different kingdoms, but to him, they're all the same. Worst of all is Beatrix, a princess who seems convinced they are star-crossed lovers soon to be wed. He can't bring himself to voice his opinion, so he lets her tell her friends, brag, embrace him whenever she feels like it. He supposes he doesn't mind.

Maybe this is what his love will be like. Letting someone love him and feigning responses or allowing them to be happy. It doesn't seem so bad, although some days it is tiring.

Tedros is still fifteen. But now, his dreary disposition has been wiped away. There has been a girl who has caught his eye, although she doesn't hail from the School for Good. But surely it is a mistake, surely someone so innocent, vulnerable and beautiful as Sophie is meant to be in the School for Good. Meanwhile that dark witch...

It seems he has caught her eye too. They begin dating, and a few happy months pass, lazy and sunny days offering his gourmet lunch instead of her gruel, talking endlessly, letting her lay her head in his lap, avoiding the stares of others and glaring at anyone who persists. It is perfect, if this isn't love, Tedros doesn't know what is. This is nothing like the romance of his father and mother and surely this will last. As long as he keeps his golden girl away from that dark and pale friend of hers, all shall go well.

Love is dead. That is all Tedros can feel. He wonders if that is what his father felt, all those years ago when he spotted Guinevere and Lancelot kissing. He is so numb, cold, he can barely process and feel anything except the betrayal that rend through his soul the moment Sophie shifted from the tulip she'd been transformed into. And that witch... she had saved him. He'd got it all wrong, all muddled. Just as his father had.

He was just as pathetic as his father, if not more. And he would suffer a loveless life because of that.

Tedros is afraid of love. It is not love that he feels for Agatha - the witch, he supposed - but it feels like the beginnings of it. All he knows is that he is certain he feels nothing for that she-demon that calls herself Sophie. Still he continues feeling, finds himself chasing Agatha, saving her, protecting her. When she betrays him and then he to her, he finds himself distraught, wishing he could shield her from the battle that ensues afterward, to apologise and explain himself as he has done to no other person. Because she is different from others, different from everyone.

And then she leaves him.

Tedros is nearly eighteen and beginning to see the greater wisdom that Merlin says comes to all rulers and must come to them. He is seated in a crystal cave of dark sapphire and begins to understand to observe his foolish and childish actions since his time in school. He's hurt many people and made so many wrong decisions that could be so easily avoided if he simply thought of others. He is not going to make one again.

As he listens to the speech, listens to the desperate undertones beneath the confident and wanting words, he keeps his thoughts in mind. And as she leans down to kiss him, he does not reciprocate the action. He stays still, cold.

Because this is not love. Nowhere near it, in fact.

Love is Agatha, and he's spent too long ignoring that fact, making the wrong decisions and hurting her. It is time to set things out.

He finds himself striding out of the cave, not considering the consequences or feelings of the blonde girl inside. Too long she has infiltrated everything, let have centre stage. Agatha has let her, and disgustingly so has he, allowing Agatha to be hurt.

He sees her dark shape, slumped over and miserable. He finds his heart rent, worse than it was when Sophie betrayed him in the Trial. He finds himself sprinting towards her, his legs pumping faster and faster as she sees him and begins running too. And when they collide, kissing passionately and pouring out their souls to each other, Tedros realises it again.

Love is messy and unorganised, raw and painful, but in times like this with Agatha, when love was so good-

It didn't matter what love was. He and Agatha had it, and it would never falter, and that is what did matter.

Even when life got worse, when people died all around them and everything was torn to shreds and ruined, with no possible conclusion or strategy to improve the situation visible. Even when they were apart, millimetres from dying.

They would always, always have each other and their love.

Forever.

I wrote this for a 10K views special, obviously, so I hope it was nice for you guys. 

I'd like to thank you all so much for all the votes and commenting, reading and support that I get from you, even with my unedited chapters and weird ideas. I'd like to thank you for everything, and I also really hope that you enjoyed this little special and the book in general.

Overall, yes, the book is finished, but at each interval where maybe I get 15K reads or I don't know, 500 votes or something similar, I'll write other little drabbles and oneshots.

Also, if you ever want anymore oneshots, I've got heaps in my own Oneshots book.

Also, this book is completed, but if you ever have any requests or ideas that you'd like me to write, I'd love to write them. Recently someone requested for a modern au and I did that, so just a reminder that I am still active and happy to write prompts and requests, even though this story is completed.

By the way, I know the layout of this is a little weird, but i thought that it would show some good perspective from Tedros which we very rarely get, and also some angst, which you guys probably know that I love.

I'll also be releasing another little special called A Collection of Letters which will be out soon.

That's about it, thanks so much again!